What do an Italian cardinal, a Connecticut blacksmith, and a German diplomat have in common with an MIT linguist, a Hungarian translator, and a Scottish church organist? They all were, or are, hugely multilingual—Cardinal Mezzofanti, for instance, was said to speak 72 languages. Linguist Michael Erard delves into the lives and minds of these "hyperpolyglots" to explore the upper limit of the human ability to learn, speak, and remember languages.

"Among the surprising qualities of Babel No More, Michael Erard's globe-trekking adventure in search of the world's virtuosos of language learning, is that a book dealing with language acquisition and polyglot linguistics can be so gripping. But indeed it is—part travelogue, part science lesson, part intellectual investigation, it is an entertaining, informative survey of some of the most fascinating polyglots of our time."—NYTBR